07_002-006 Schuppener (1228).qxd:000-000 Schuppener (1228).qxd 30.07.

2009 13:23 Uhr Seite 2

Bernd Schuppener DOI: 10.1002/bate.200910036

Franz-Reinhard Ruppert

Merging European and German Standards –

Eurocode 7, DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
The German version of Eurocode 7 “Geotechnical Design” with its two parts DIN EN 1997-1 However, planners applying other stan-
“General Rules” and DIN EN 1997-2 “Ground Investigation and Testing” will shortly be dards will have to demonstrate that
available. The two parts of this Eurocode compete to some extent with two fundamental their designs are equivalent to a design
German geotechnical standards: DIN 1054:2005-1 “Ground – Verification of Safety of in the relevant Eurocodes.
Earthworks and Foundations” and DIN 4020:2003-09 “Geotechnical Investigations for Civil The following principles have to
Engineering Purposes”. be heeded during the process of har-
According to the regulations of the European Union, standards competing with European monising national and European stan-
standards have to be withdrawn after a harmonisation period of two years and a co- dards:
existence period of another 3 years. That is why in three to five years DIN 1054 and – The Eurocodes, including all infor-
DIN 4020, in their present form, will have to be replaced by revised versions. The paper is mative annexes, must be fully imple-
describing the necessary adaptations as far as the content is concerned and how the mented by all member states.
specific German geotechnical experience will be conserved in the new system of
– The use of national standards is still
European and German standards...
permitted under the following condi-
tions:
1 Introduction mittees of the Geotechnical and Foun- – national standards must not conflict
dation Engineering Department of the or compete with European standards
Eurocode 7 “Geotechnical Design”, Building and Civil Engineering Divi- and
which is of importance for geotechni- sion of DIN, the German standards – all national standards for which
cal engineering as a whole, has been body. The committees concerned are equivalent European standards exist
fully available in German since Sep- the Safety in Earthworks and Foun- have to be withdrawn after a transi-
tember 2007 when Part 2 “Ground In- dation Engineering Committee and the tional period.
vestigation and Testing” was published Soil and Rock Investigations Com- The European states are required
as DIN EN 1997-2 [1]. Part 1 “Gen- mittee which deal with DIN EN 1997-1 to draw up national annexes to the
eral Rules” had previously been pub- and DIN EN 1997-2 respectively. Both Eurocodes to enable the codes to be
lished in German as DIN EN 1997-1 committees previously acted as na- applied in the respective countries and
[2] in October 2005. tional “mirror committees” during the to link them with national standards.
All German standards that in- process of drafting Eurocode 7. This Due to the particular importance of
clude provisions, covered by the Eu- article will describe the necessary the national annexes, the European
rocodes, have to be withdrawn after a changes that have to be made regarding Commission has published “Guidance
two-year harmonisation period and a the content and form of DIN 1054 and Paper L – Application and Use of
coexistence period of three additional DIN 4020. Eurocodes” [5] stipulating which
years. This also applies to the German provisions may be included in the an-
standards DIN 1054:2005 “Ground – 2 Procedure for adapting national nexes and how the annexes have to be
Verification of Safety of Earthworks and standards structured. However, the scope for
Foundations” [3] and DIN 4020:2003 national decisions regarding the con-
“Geotechnical Investigations for Civil The EU Directives on public procure- tent of the national annexes is limited
Engineering Purposes” [4] which have ment stipulate that all public invita- as follows:
been adopted by the German building tions to tender and all public con- “2.3.4 A National Annex cannot
authorities. The content and form of tracts in the European construction change or modify the content of the
both standards have to be revised by industry have to be based on the Eu- EN Eurocode text in any way other
the end of the coexistence period in rocodes in the future. The codes will than where it indicates that national
order to conserve the specific German thus form the technical basis for com- choices may be made by means of
experience in earthworks and foun- petitive bidding for construction con- Nationally Determined Parameters“.
dation engineering which are covered tracts in the public sector. That does Sub clause 2.3.3 of Guidance Pa-
by the standards. Revision is currently not mean that designs will have to be per L [5] states that national annexes
being carried out by the relevant com- based exclusively on the Eurocodes. may include the following:

2 © Ernst & Sohn Verlag für Architektur und technische Wissenschaften GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin · Bautechnik Special issue 2009 – Geotechnical Engineering
07_002-006 Schuppener (1228).qxd:000-000 Schuppener (1228).qxd
– values of nationally determined pa-
rameters (e.g. for partial safety fac-
tors),
– the decision on which design ap-
proaches are to be applied if several
options are available,
– the decision on the application of
the informative annexes,
– references to non-contradictory ad-
ditional information to assist the user
in applying the Eurocode.
Consequently, national annexes
are not permitted to include any addi-
tional national normative provisions.
However, national standards are still
permitted to cover specifically national
provisions and must be cited in the
National Annex.
DIN 1054 and DIN 4020 have
both to be revised in order to con-
serve specific German geotechnical
experience, omitting any provisions
already covered by Eurocode 7. The
duly revised standards will then no
longer compete or conflict with EC 7
and will be acceptable national com-
plements to the code. Work on the new
versions of DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
will therefore have to be carried out in
tandem with the work on drawing up
the National Annex. It would be im-
possible to perform stability and ser-
viceability verifications to EC 7-1 with-
out the complementary national pro-
visions laid down in the amended
version of DIN 1054. Similarly, the
supplementary rules given in the re-
vised version of DIN 4020 are needed
to maintain the quality requirements
for ground investigations specified in
the current version of the standard.
Notwithstanding the different con-
tents of the two parts of Eurocode 7,
the work of the national committees
involves the following stages:
– drafting the National Annex,
– revising DIN 1054 and DIN 4020,
– coordinating the contents of the new
versions of DIN 1054 and DIN 4020.
3 Eurocode 7 “Geotechnical Design”
3.1 DIN EN 1997-1 and DIN 1054
The following code and standard are
currently available for geotechnical
design in Germany:
– Eurocode 7 “Geotechnical Design
– Part 1: General Rules” (DIN EN
1997-1:2005) and
– DIN 1054:2005 “Ground – Verifi-
cation of Safety of Earthworks and
Foundations”.
30.07.2009
B. Schuppener/F.-R. Ruppert · Merging European and German Standards – Eurocode 7, DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
DIN 1054 was drawn up in tan-
dem with EC 7-1. The purpose of doing
so was not only to link the partial safety
concept of the Eurocodes to specific
German experience and methods, but
also to provide users with mandatory
normative provisions for a transitional
period. Details on how the relevant
design approaches and partial factors
were selected are given in Vogt et al.
[6].
The contents of DIN EN 1997-1
and DIN 1054 are shown by the two
circles in Figure 1. The circles inter-
sect as the majority of the provisions
in both standards are identical. The
overlap between the circles contains
the fundamental and most important
specifications, e.g. the definitions of
the limit states and the partial safety
concept. It corresponds to the nor-
mative part of DIN EN 1997-1. The
area on the left indicates those speci-
fications of DIN EN 1997-1 that are
not included in DIN 1054. They in-
clude, for example, the design ap-
proaches that Germany has decided
not to apply and the informative an-
nexes with calculation methods for
geotechnical design for which there are
separate German standards. Last but
not least, the area on the right shows
those provisions of DIN 1054 that are
not included in DIN EN 1997-1. They
cover all the specifically German ex-
perience which German designers
wish to continue to apply in future.
In its present form, the national
standard DIN 1054 competes with
DIN EN 1997-1. In order to conserve
the specifically German provisions
which it contains, DIN 1054 will be
revised at the same time as work on
drafting the National Annex is pro-
ceeding and any identical provisions
already included in the Eurocode will
be omitted. The revised DIN 1054:
Fig. 1. Contents of Eurocode DIN EN 1997-1 and DIN 1054
Bautechnik Special issue 2009 – Geotechnical Engineering
13:23 Uhr Seite 3
2009, entitled “Supplementary Rules
for DIN EN 1997-1” will then no longer
compete with DIN EN 1997-1.
The future system of standards
for geotechnical design in Germany is
shown in Figure 2. The principal stan-
dard will be DIN EN 1997-1 “Geo-
technical Design – General Rules” with
the National Annex in which refer-
ence will be made to DIN 1054:2009
“Supplementary Rules to be used in
Conjunction with DIN EN 1997-1“.
In addition, the National Annex will,
of course, cite the other standards that
apply to geotechnical engineering.
These include, for example, the stan-
dards for calculation methods such
as DIN 4017 “Calculation of the De-
sign Bearing Capacity of Soil beneath
Shallow Foundations”, DIN 4084
“Soil – Calculation of Embankment
Failure and overall Stability of Re-
taining Structures” and DIN 4085
“Soil — Calculation of Earth Pressure”
as well as the standards for specialised
geotechnical works and important
German codes such as EAU 2004
(Recommendations of the Committee
for Waterfront Structures; 2004 edi-
tion) [7] and EAB (Recommenda-
tions of the Working Group for Exca-
vations) [8].
The timetable for developing DIN
EN 1997-1 and the various editions of
DIN 1054 is shown in Figure 3. The
National Annex and the amended
version of DIN 1054:2009, “Supple-
mentary Rules to be used in Conjunc-
tion with DIN EN 1997-1”, must be
drawn up during the two-year harmon-
isation period. During the subsequent
three-year coexistence period, DIN EN
1997-1, the National Annex (DIN EN
1997-1/NA) and DIN 1054:2009 “Sup-
plementary Rules for DIN EN 1997-1”
will apply alongside DIN 1054:2005
“Ground — Verification of the Safety
3
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B. Schuppener/F.-R. Ruppert · Merging European and German Standards – Eurocode 7, DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
Fig. 2. Future system of standards for geotechnical design
Fig. 3. Timetable for the implementation of Eurocode 7-1 (DIN EN 1997-1)
of Earthworks and Foundations”. The
latter is scheduled to be withdrawn
at the beginning of 2010. However,
writing the National Annex and the
amended version of DIN 1054 is tak-
ing longer than originally planned so
that the two standards will probably
not be completed until early 2009.
3.2 DIN EN 1997-2 and DIN 4020
3.2.1 Importance of ground
investigations and testing
The tremendous importance of ground
investigations and the standards DIN
EN 1997-2 and DIN 4020, in which the
relevant requirements are specified, is
stressed both in DIN EN 1997-1 and
in DIN 1054. Sub clause 2.4.1 (2) of
DIN EN 1997-1 [2] states explicitly
that “knowledge of the ground condi-
tions depends on the extent and qual-
ity of the geotechnical investigations.
Such knowledge and the control of
workmanship are usually more signif-
icant to fulfilling the fundamental re-
4 Bautechnik Special issue 2009 – Geotechnical Engineering
30.07.2009
quirements than is precision in the
calculation models and partial factors”.
Foundation design and ground
investigations have to be regarded as
inseparable [9]. The stability of a foun-
dation can only be reliably calculated
if the soil parameters can be reliably
specified and checked. Compliance
with DIN 4020 is therefore absolutely
essential. However, unlike DIN 1054:
2005, DIN 4020:2003 was unfortu-
nately never formally adopted by the
German building authorities, or more
specifically, by the Building Technology
Commission of the Standing Confer-
ence of the Construction Ministers of
the states of the Federal Republic of
Germany. The representatives of the
highest level of the building inspec-
torate hierarchy in Germany held the
view that DIN 4020 had to all intents
and purposes been adopted by the
building authorities by virtue of the
numerous references to the standard
in DIN 1054. In item no. 3 of the Ap-
pendix to DIN 1054:2005, which has
13:23 Uhr Seite 4
been adopted by the building author-
ities, it is stated that ”DIN 1054 refers
repeatedly to the results of ground in-
vestigations which meet the require-
ments of DIN 4020:2003. The results
of such investigations must be avail-
able before work on a construction
project may proceed”. However, stat-
ing that results of ground investiga-
tions performed to DIN 4020 have to
be available does not guarantee that
those results are double-checked in
accordance with usual practice to en-
sure that they are correct. The authors
therefore cannot detect any intention
on the part of the building authorities
to adopt DIN 4020 indirectly [10].
The stance taken by the building
inspectorates is regrettable, as the
aim of the Soil and Rock Investiga-
tions Committee has always been to
obtain proper recognition for DIN
4020 as a body of rules, having to
play a major part in ensuring the pub-
lic safety of structures. The committee
is endeavouring to have DIN 4020 in-
cluded in the list of “Acknowledged
technical rules for works” which is
published by the German Institute for
Building Technology (DIBt). This is
because the “acknowledged technical
rules” generally are recognised rules
of technology which serve the inter-
ests of public safety and security. Once
a body of rules has been adopted by
the building authorities, the building
inspectorate has to ensure that those
rules are observed because of their rel-
evance to public safety and security
[9].
Ground investigations are central
to ensuring safety and structural sta-
bility. Inadequate ground investiga-
tions often lead to structural damage
and may even result in an endanger-
ment of public safety. In addition, they
may cause economic disadvantages
and contractual problems. From a legal
point of view, DIN 4020 is regarded
as a basic standard as it contains tech-
nical rules of fundamental importance
[10].
However, everyday experience has
shown that, in spite of the availability
of the relevant normative rules, ground
investigations are frequently not con-
ducted as specified and as required
for individual projects due to compet-
itive pressure. The failure to respect the
relevant rules is also owing the fact that
ground investigations, the conclusions
drawn from those investigations and
07_002-006 Schuppener (1228).qxd:000-000 Schuppener (1228).qxd
the ground parameters specified as a
result are not double-checked. The
principle of double-checking planning
application documents is actually one
of the cornerstones of the official pro-
cedure for examining applications for
planning permission. However, the
procedure frequently only includes a
check whether a ground investigation
report has been submitted. The con-
tents of such reports are not, or only
infrequently, checked.
Although it is vital for the princi-
ple of double-checking to be applied
to ground investigation reports, it rarely
happens in practice [11]. This is rather
odd, considering that the Model Build-
ing Code provides for an institution
that would be responsible for ensur-
ing compliance with the principle of
double-checking, i.e. recognised geo-
engineering consultants whose task
consists of assisting in the examina-
tion of documents, submitted as part
of applications for planning permis-
sion as defined in section 59(3) of the
Model Building Code. As pointed out
in [12], such geoengineering consul-
tants are of great importance to the
building inspectorates, as they are able
to provide expert assessments of highly
complex safety issues relating to earth-
works and foundation engineering
projects. The appointment of recog-
nised geoengineering consultants be-
ing at the discretion of the relevant
building inspectorates or of the engi-
neers checking the documents on their
behalf [11] constitutes an enormous
drawback of the procedure.
3.2.2 Adapting DIN 4020 and EN 1997-2
The situation regarding the standards
for ground investigations and assess-
ments is similar to that of the design
standards. The German standard DIN
4020 „Geotechnical Investigations for
Civil Engineering Purposes“ was pub-
lished in September 2003. In addi-
tion, Part 2 of Eurocode 7 – “DIN EN
1997-2, Eurocode 7 – Geotechnical
Design – Part 2: Ground Investiga-
tion and Testing“ – will be published
in German later this year.
The European Standard DIN EN
1997-2 contains provisions far exceed-
ing the scope of those in DIN 4020.
For example, the Eurocode includes
specifications for sampling soil and
rock, field investigations and labora-
tory testing. On the other hand, there
30.07.2009
B. Schuppener/F.-R. Ruppert · Merging European and German Standards – Eurocode 7, DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
Fig. 4. Timetable for the implementation of Eurocode 7-2 (DIN EN 1997-2)
is a consensus of opinion that those
provisions of DIN 4020:2003 which
have been successfully tried and tested,
but which are not included in DIN EN
1997-2, should be conserved as specific
German experience and published in
the form of supplementary rules in a
revised version of the standard. The
overlap in the contents of DIN EN
1997-2 and DIN 4020:2003 is very
similar to the one shown in the dia-
gram in figure 1. All provisions in-
cluded in both standards will be omit-
ted in the new version of DIN 4020.
The process of merging DIN
4020 with DIN EN 1997-2 will follow
the same procedure as for DIN 1054
and DIN EN 1997-1. DIN 4020 will
be revised and a National Annex to
DIN EN 1997-2 will be drawn up. In
the future, there will therefore be
three standards for ground investiga-
tions and testing, i.e. DIN EN 1997-2,
the corresponding National Annex
(DIN EN 1997-2/NA) and DIN
4020:2009 „Supplementary Rules for
DIN EN 1997-2“ which will be valid
from around 2012 after the harmoni-
sation and coexistence periods (see
Figure 4).
The National Annex will not only
refer to the revised DIN 4020:2009 as
a supplementary standard, containing
the necessary additional national
provisions for planning, performing
and evaluating ground investigations,
but will also cite all other standards
for ground investigations which have
to be complied with. These include, for
example, DIN EN ISO 22476 „Geo-
technical Investigation and Testing –
Field Testing“, DIN EN ISO 14688-1
„Geotechnical Investigation and Test-
ing – Identification and Classification
of Soil“, DIN EN ISO 22475 „Geo-
technical Investigation and Testing –
Bautechnik Special issue 2009 – Geotechnical Engineering
13:23 Uhr Seite 5
Sampling Methods and Groundwater
Measurements“, the standards for
laboratory testing such as DIN 18137
„Soil, Investigation and Testing – De-
termination of Shear Strength“ and
DIN 18196 „Earthworks and Founda-
tions – Soil Classification for Civil
Engineering Purposes“.
4 The new body of standards
As a result of the above developments,
the hierarchy of standards shown in
Figure 5 will apply to geotechnical de-
sign in future. The Eurocode „Basis of
Structural Design“ and EC 1 „Euro-
code 1: Actions on Structures“ are the
„master Eurocodes“ at the top of the
hierarchy and will form the basis of
structural design throughout Europe.
The other eight Eurocodes all refer to
the two master codes. However, it will
not be possible to design structures in
any of the numerous fields of structural
engineering or to perform the requisite
verifications of structural stability, us-
ing the Eurocodes alone as the rele-
vant partial factors and, in many cases,
the choice of design approach have to
be specified by the national standards
bodies. The partial factors and design
approaches must be laid down in the
national annexes, so that the Eu-
rocodes can become operational in the
member states and to provide a link be-
tween the Eurocodes and the national
standards that continue to be valid.
As part of the process of adapting
the national standards to Eurocode 7,
the new versions of DIN 1054 and DIN
4020 will first be made available as
draft standards and circulated for pub-
lic comment in accordance with DIN’s
principles for standardisation work.
Each set of three standards –
EC 7-1 (DIN EN 1997-1), the National
5
07_002-006 Schuppener (1228).qxd:000-000 Schuppener (1228).qxd
B. Schuppener/F.-R. Ruppert · Merging European and German Standards – Eurocode 7, DIN 1054 and DIN 4020
Fig. 5. Future hierarchy of European and German geotechnical standards
Annex to EC 7-1 (EN 1997-1/NA) and
DIN 1054:2009 and EC 7-2 (DIN EN
1997-2), the National Annex to EC 7-2
(EN 1997-2/NA) and DIN 4020:2009
with supplementary rules – will unfor-
tunately be far from user-friendly as
users will always need to refer to all
three documents of whichever set is
relevant. It is therefore planned to draw
up separate Standards Handbooks,
covering each set in which the Euro-
code, the relevant National Annex and
DIN 1054 or DIN 4020 are combined
to form a single document. It will be
shown typographically which provi-
sions have been taken from which
standard. Although not being the best
possible solution, it is certainly the best
one for users given the circumstances.
References
[1] DIN EN 1997-2: Eurocode 7 – Geo-
technical Design, Part 2: Ground In-
vestigation and Testing, 2007
6 Bautechnik Special issue 2009 – Geotechnical Engineering
30.07.2009
[2] DIN EN 1997-1: Eurocode 7 – Geo-
technical Design, Part 1: General Rules,
2005
[3] DIN 1054:2005, Ground – Verifica-
tion of Safety of Earthworks and Foun-
dations
[4] DIN 4020:2003, Geotechnical Inves-
tigations for Civil Engineering Purposes
[5] Guidance paper L – Application and
Use of Eurocodes
[6] Vogt, N., Schuppener, B., Weißenbach,
A.: Nachweisverfahren des EC 7-1 für
geotechnische Bemessungen in
Deutschland, geotechnik 29 (2006) Nr. 3,
S. 246
[7] EAU Empfehlungen des Arbeitsaus-
schusses “Ufereinfassungen, Häfen und
Wasserstraßen” (Recommendations of
the Committee for Waterfront Structures,
harbours and Waterways), published
by the Arbeitsausschuss “Ufereinfassun-
gen“ (Committee for Waterfront Struc-
tures) of the Hafenbautechnische Ge-
sellschaft e.V. (Harbour construction
Society) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Geotechnik (German Society for
Geotechnical Engineering, DGGT)
13:23 Uhr Seite 6
[8] EAB Empfehlungen des Arbeits-
kreises “Baugruben”, (Recommenda-
tions of the Working Group for Exca-
vations), published by the Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Geotechnik (German
Society for Geotechnical Engineering,
DGGT), 4th edition, Ernst & Sohn,
Berlin, 2006.
[9] Klauke, E. W.: Zur geplanten bauauf-
sichtlichen Einführung der DIN 4020 –
in: DIN Deutsches Institut für Nor-
mung e. V. Berlin, Referatesammlung –
Bemessung und Erkundung in der Geo-
technik – Neue Entwicklungen im Zuge
der Neuauflage der DIN 1054 und DIN
4020 sowie der europäischen Nor-
mung. S. 10-1 bis 10-10, Beuth Verlag
GmbH 2003.
[10] Englert, K. & Fuchs, B.: Die Funda-
mentalnorm für die Errichtung von
Bauwerken: DIN 4020. – Baurecht,
7/2006, S. 1047 — 1058.
[11] Katzenbach, R. & Kinzel, J.: Das Vier-
Augen-Prinzip bei Baugrundgutach-
ten. Prüfingenieur, 18, April 2001.
[12] Noebel, Th.: Neue Musterverord-
nung für Sachverständige des Erd- und
Grundbaus. – Deutsches Ingenieurblatt,
1998, S. 8–40.
Authors:
Dr. Bernd Schuppener, Head of the Geotechni-
cal Engineering Department of the Federal
Waterways Engineering and Research Institute
(BAW), Kußmaulstraße 17, 76187 Karlsruhe;
bernd.schuppener@baw.de
Convenor of the “Safety in Earthworks and
Foundation Engineering” Committee, the Steer-
ing Committee “Foundation engineering and
geotechnical engineering” of the Building and
Civil Engineering Standards Committee of DIN
and Subcommittee 7 “Geotechnical design” of
CEN TC 250 “Structural Eurocodes“
Dr. Franz-Reinhard Ruppert, Geoengineering
Consultant, Löwenwall 6, 38100 Braunschweig;
ruppert@ruppert-grundbau.de
Convenor of the “Soil and Rock Investigations”
Committee (DIN 4020) of the Building and Civil
Engineering Standards Committee of DIN